"Barry N. Malzberg - Uncoupling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Malzberg Barry N)

understanding—don't you clowns understand this?—and
furthermore,” I added more quietly as several threatening robot
policemen, noiseless on their canisters, glided into the reception
area holding cans of Mace at ready, “anyway,” I whispered to
the attendant, the gentlest and most winsome of expressions

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 Uncoupling by Barry Malzberg



chasing all the snakes from the panels of the features, “this is
one of my prescribed days for heterosex and I want to make the
most of it. Time is money, after all, money is the barter of
existence and without time and money where would any of us
be? I wish to engage in normative heterosex during this, my
relaxative period.” I perched an elbow on the desk, turned a
non-threatening blink upon the attendant. “Pardon me for my
haste,” I added, “pardonniere moi au mon haste, je suis so
needful.”
The attendant foraged under the desk, produced a standard
application form, passed it across to me. The robot policemen
chattered to one another, their tentacles flicking in a
consultative manner, and then as noiselessly as they emerged,
withdrew, leaving the reception area blank and impermeable
once again. I respect the means by which they maintain security

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 Uncoupling by Barry Malzberg



here. Really, the Towers is in a difficult position, catering as it
must to the full range of human desire and perversity, and if I
were administering it, which I happily do not (the Government
itself administers everything nowadays; the projections of the
mid-1900s were absolutely correct), I would be even more
forceful than they. People must learn to accept their condition.
People must realize that in a world of poison, overpopulation and
enormous international tensions, where five people occupy the
space biology would have reserved for only one, tensions
accumulate and the only way that the world can be prevented
‘from complete destruction is a firm administrative hand at the
top. People must fall into place. (I wrote my thesis on neo-
Fascism and have in my cubicle a handy collection of whips’ that
I am apt at jocular moments to lay merrily about myself and all
visitors.)

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 Uncoupling by Barry Malzberg